VBT – Week’s Meditation 71
New Thirst
You can be in bliss only where you are authentically yourself. You can never feel any happiness when you are acting as someone else. So remember tantra’s message: YOU are the ideal. You are not to imitate anyone; you are to discover yourself. Looking at a buddha, there is no need to imitate him. When you are looking at a buddha, the possibility hits deep in you that something of the beyond can happen. Buddha is just a symbol that something has happened to this man – and if it can happen to this man, it can happen to EVERY man. Then the whole possibility of humanity is revealed.
In Jesus, in Meera, in Chaitanya, just a possibility is revealed, the future is revealed. You need not be whatsoever you are. Something more is possible. So Buddha is just a symbol of the future.
Don’t imitate him; rather, let his life, his being, the phenomenon that is happening, become a new thirst in you, that is all. You must not be content with yourself as you are right now. Let Buddha become a discontent in you, a thirst to transcend, to go beyond, to move into the unknown. When you reach the peak of your own being, you will know what happened to Buddha under the bodhi tree or what happened to Jesus on the cross or what happened to Meera when she was dancing in the streets. You will know, but your expression will be your own. You are not going to be a Meera or a Buddha or a Jesus. You are going to be yourself, and you have never been before. You are unique.
So nothing can be said; you are not predictable. No one can say what will happen, how you will manifest it. Whether you will sing, dance, paint or remain silent no one can say. And it is good that nothing can be said, nothing can be predicted. That is the beauty. If it is predictable that you will be like this or that, then you will become a mechanical thing.
Predictions are possible only about mechanical devices. Human consciousness is unpredictable; that is its freedom. So when tantra says don’t follow ideals, it doesn’t mean to deny Buddha. No, it is not a denial. Really, it is how you can find your own buddhahood. Following another, you will miss it. Following your own path, you can gain it, you can achieve it.
Someone came to a Zen master, Bokuju. Bokuju’s master was very famous, well known, a very great man, so someone asked “Are you really following your master?”
Bokuju said, “Yes, I am following him.”
But the man who asked the question was disturbed because it was well known all over the country that Bokuju was not following his master at all. So the man said, “Are you trying to deceive me? Everyone knows and you are also aware that you are not following your master at all, and still you say that you are following. What do you mean?”
Bokuju said, “I am following my master – because my master never followed his master. This is what I have learned from him. He was himself!”
This is how a Buddha, a Jesus, is to be followed. This is how! They are unique! If you are really following them, YOU must be unique.
Tags: New Thirst
